This past week our Olivia turned three years old.
At her three-year checkup, Olivia weighed 32 pounds six ounces (68th percentile) and measured three feet two inches tall (74th percentile).
In classic middle child form, Olivia wants to keep up with everything that Tommy is doing while also bossing Genevieve around. It’s so interesting watching her navigate her roles as both the little sister and the big sister. I’m not sure whether it’s been more difficult for her and Tommy to navigate their three-and-a-half-year age gap or for her and Genevieve to navigate their ten-and-a-half-month age gap. Both of these relationships have gone more smoothly as she’s gotten older. I hope that trend continues over the coming months and years.
Olivia remains a great helper. She’s always interested in assisting with setting the table, putting dirty laundry in baskets, wiping up spills, and much more. I hope that she continues to be interested in helping as she gets older.
This whole past year, Olivia’s major TV/screen time obsession has been Blippi. Once upon a time, I enjoyed watching Blippi. Unfortunately, Olivia burned out all of us on Blippi. I can’t handle more than small doses of it anymore. Thankfully, during the past couple of months, Olivia has been willing to watch a few more shows, namely Cocomelon and Bluey. While I don’t love Cocomelon either, it’s a welcome change of pace to have something else in the mix, and it could certainly be a lot worse.
Olivia started preschool two days per week a month before Annie was born. I didn’t want to put her through both of these transitions at once, especially with Tommy starting kindergarten right when Annie was born. It was just as well because, in typical new school form, Tommy came home with a 100-degree fever after her first week. Then she had an awful case of diarrhea and missed a few days herself. I’m so glad that we got all of that out of the way before Annie arrived.
Olivia had been asking about going to school herself for several months before she started. She was so psyched the first day. Then Olivia did struggle with the transition of being dropped off every day, although she’s always been fine after that. Now Olivia does so much better with drop-off. She always tells us about eating and taking naps at school. A month before she turned three, Olivia moved up from the two year old classroom and into the preschool classroom.
A solid month before Olivia turned three, she was able to count to eleven, identify the basic colors, and identify a circle. She does so well with counting objects and using numbers correctly (i.e., two crackers, three blocks).
Olivia has been coming to music class with Tommy ever since she was born. She started her own music class in the summer of 2022 and has been going strong ever since. Right now, she, Genevieve, and Annie are in a mixed-age class. Last school year, Olivia also did gymnastics, which she loved. We’re taking a break from it now, but I may look into classes again in the future.
This past school year, Tommy completed a year-long music class with other four- and five-year-olds. Among many other things, he gained so much confidence in his singing and learned to match pitch. I’m blown away by how much Olivia has picked up from him. She sings all the time and matches pitch so well for her age.
As I mentioned in one of Genevieve’s updates, the girls went through a big thing with Diggy Diggy Hole this year. Olivia would ask for the video at home and the song in the car constantly. Genevieve still does almost every day. Both girls are also crazy about Wheels on the Bus. They’ve learned all the words and never tire of someone singing it to them and watching videos of it. Finally, Olivia is in a big Baby Shark phase right now. Generally, when we get in the car, we listen to Baby Shark and a couple of versions of Diggy Diggy Hole before we can move on to something else. Olivia is constantly asking to listen to music and loves to sing and dance.
Olivia started swimming lessons this fall. Genevieve joined her class the week after she turned two. Both girls have been doing so well with swimming. They’ve been watching Tommy swim their whole lives and were very familiar with the lesson routine before they started it themselves. Both girls are comfortable in the water and have done such a good job trying everything that the teacher wants them to do.
Olivia has come so far with her eating this past year. Some of you may remember that Olivia had a lot of trouble with food texture as a baby. It took a long time to transition her to solid foods. Olivia still struggles with fruit and vegetable skins and some other foods that have an unusual texture or are hard to chew. It doesn’t help that Tommy remains a very picky eater. Olivia was reluctant to try new foods for quite a while, too. Now she tries almost everything and eats a wide variety of foods. Olivia’s favorite foods include bananas, blueberries, yogurt, cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, fries, and crispy smashed potatoes. She loves a wide variety of cheese and never turns down the opportunity to dip her food.
Seemingly overnight, Olivia needed to move up to 3T pants. By the fall, she’d also outgrown the tights I bought her in the spring and the swimsuit I bought her in the summer. She’s now in all 3T clothes and has been wearing toddler size 7 shoes most of the last year.
Olivia got her first haircut right after she turned two. I take her to get a trim every month or two when I take Tommy. The same girl has been cutting his hair for several years, and she’s amazing with the kids. Olivia does not want me to do her hair or spend much time on it, so it’s worked well to keep it short for now.
Olivia transitioned to a toddler bed around two and a half. Almost immediately afterward, she wanted Genevieve to take the crib in her room. I talked in one of Genevieve’s updates about how since I found out that I was pregnant with Annie, our long-term plan has been for Olivia and Genevieve to share what has been Olivia’s bedroom and for Annie to take the smaller bedroom. I love that the girls wanted to make this transition on their own and have done so well with it.
Keeping Olivia in her toddler bed has been the bigger transition. I believe that it would have been big for her even without sharing a room. It took a couple of months for her to settle into a good routine of going to sleep right away and not getting up repeatedly. Thankfully, by the time she turned three years old, she had reached a good bedtime routine.
Olivia still naps for at least two hours every afternoon at the same time as Genevieve. I put them down together after they’ve had lunch, which can be anywhere between 11:30 a.m. and two p.m., depending on what we’re doing that day. Now that Olivia’s in the toddler bed and can get up whenever she wants, she tends to take a shorter nap than Genevieve. Generally, she’ll get up quietly, and let Genevieve keep sleeping.
Olivia showed a huge interest in potty training during the summer and initiated going on her own all the time. She pulled back a bit in the fall. Her teachers actually encouraged me to start sending her to school in underwear before I would have done it on my own. It helped so much and got us to make the push to full-time in underwear at home, too. By the time she turned three, she was fully potty trained, including at night, which still blows my mind. We couldn’t be more proud of her.
Here’s to another great year ahead with our Olivia!
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all of the kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
